PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Harrison feels, and looks, good in debut

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

Sunday

Dec 31, 2017 at 7:20 PMDec 31, 2017 at 7:23 PM

FOXBORO – How did James Harrison look in his Patriots debut?

Well rested.

The 39-year-old outside linebacker, whose playing time had been limited to 40 snaps in the five games he’d played with the Pittsburgh Steelers this year, registered five tackles while closing the game out with back-to-back sacks of Bryce Petty (forcing a fumble on one of them) in the Patriots’ 26-6 regular season-ending win over the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

“It felt good,” Harrison said when it was over. “It felt really good.”

To others, it looked good.

“He’s been doing it for so many years,” said defensive end Trey Flowers, who also had a sack (the Patriots had four in the game), “it just felt good for him to be doing it for us instead of against us.”

The two sacks upped Harrison’s career total to 841/2 over the 15 seasons he’s spent in the National Football League, a franchise-record 80 coming in 14 years with the Steelers.

“I was just rushing outside and they were passing a lot, so I had good opportunities to get around the corner,” said Harrison. “For the other one, I was able to cut back underneath the guard and the quarterback was scrambling. It felt good.”

No cold feet: It may have been the most frigid regular-season home game in Patriots history, but punter Ryan Allen, for one, did not get cold feet.

“He had a good day,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said, “and it’s a tough day out there.”

Allen had an outstanding day, averaging 42.3 yards gross, 41.8 net, while placing five of eight punts inside the 20-yard line, including two at the 4 and one at the 3 with the Jets in a desperate catch-up situation in the fourth quarter.

“It’s nice, at the end of the day, when we’re all firing on the same cylinder and we’re working together like that and good things happen,” said Allen. “It’s encouraging and it’s motivating to continue to work and help out the defense. It’s rewarding.”

Perennial Pro Bowler Matthew Slater downed the first two fourth-quarter punts at the 4 (one led to a safety when defensive end Eric Lee sacked Petty in the end zone), while Allen placed the third one out of bounds at the 3.

All in all, not a bad way for the special teams to head into the postseason.

“You want to be executing on all cylinders heading into the playoffs and try to be playing your best football of the year,” said Slater. “Ryan was certainly confident today. He was hitting the ball great, especially considering the conditions. We were able to execute and have a lot of confidence in executing in our situations.

“Really, today was about him and his punting. That’s the way we want to execute down the stretch in all phases of the game. Having a lot of confidence heading into what will be the most important game of the season coming up.”